Neo-Babylonian Empire

The Neo-Babylonian Empire was a Mesopotamian empire which existed from 626 to 539 BC, with Babylon serving as its capital. Nabopolassar led Babylonia in a rebellion against the civil war-plagued Neo-Assyrian Empire and allied with the Medes to destroy the Assyrian army at Harran and to sack Nineveh in 612 BC, ending Assyrian rule. Under Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 605-562 BC), the Babylonians conquered Arabia and, in 587 BC, razed Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem and took the Jews into captivity. Babylonia continued to be a large and powerful empire until Cyrus the Great and his Persians invaded Babylon and deposed Nabonidus, leading to the rise of the Achaemenid Empire.